Measuring magnetic fields compressed in cylindrical implosions with proton radiography

What is it about?

We put a strong magnetic field in a cylinder and implode it with many laser beams to compress the field to make it even stronger. But, the plasma created by the lasers around the cylinder makes it hard to measure the field inside the cylinder – in this paper we delve into some of the details of trying to make that measurement.

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Photo by John Doyle on Unsplash

Photo by John Doyle on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Compressing magnetic fields with cylindrical implosions allows us to create stronger magnetic fields than otherwise possible. This type of configuration is also key to the MagLIF fusion concept. However, diagnosing the magnetic fields inside these implosions is complicated by other fields in the experiment. This paper discusses the challenges to making this type of measurement.